I suffered through a looooooong telephone survey this morning, obviously from Microsoft (though they made a half hearted effort to obscure that for the first quarter or so).

Shows what they're interested in - public impressions of Windows vs. Linux, .NET vs. the world, trust and respect for Microsoft.

My input averages out to: Windows = so so; Linux = preferred where it works. .NET = not useful (vapor); Trust = not half as far as I can throw 'em; Respect = huh?

Interestingly, the questions treated Linux as a company.

The ladies doing the surveys are always nice, and it's not their fault the outfit paying for the survey is a bunch of criminals, they're just trying to do their job, and are appreciative that someone is willing to do the survey.

I tend to get them early and give them a bit of much needed training, background and pronunciation help (a couple surveys I've answered I was obviously (and admitedly) the first respondant).

The survey questions give me a real good idea what's bothering the outfit paying for the survey and what they're up to.

Besides, surveys can be fun, and sometimes profitable (I won the drawing for $500 on one of them, and some send checks or boxes of chocolates (though I don't expect that from Microsoft - Billy sez, "a dollar saved is a dollar for me")).

A few years back I was in a focus group ($125) helping Microsoft decide on a name and price range for Visual Studio. That was fun for me, but not for the poor survey people. Most of the participants were very vocal that they didn't care what the name was or what the price was, they didn't trust Microsoft and wouldn't use the product.

Another focus group ($125) was for that outfit that went broke trying to sell expensive service contracts along with Postgre SQL. We let them know the plan would fly like a lead balloon, but they just wasted their money. They released the product as prsented two or three weeks after the focus group, so they probably never even read the results. RIP.